20: The extraordinary nature of top-grade spiritual roots

【Tracking Disc, Low Grade Magical Artifact, used in conjunction with Soul-Chasing Powder, range of fifty miles.】

"So this is the reason he was able to track me..."

Receiving the prompt from the eye pattern on his palm, Su Ling finally understood.

Soul-Chasing Powder is a special powder produced by the Pill Refining Room, mainly used for tracking.

With just a tiny bit of powder on one's body, one can track the target through Divine Sense or a Tracking Disc.

It lasts for at most three years.

The double-edged sword is that if someone has close contact with a person who has been afflicted with Soul-Chasing Powder, the powder will also spread to that person.

It is highly likely to cause the pursuer to find the wrong target.

Therefore, Chen Ping, Qian Zheng, and Lu Can were likely afflicted with the Soul-Chasing Powder just before leaving the Sect.

"Damn it, it must have been when I was carrying the corpses of Qian Zheng and Lu Can that I came into contact with the Soul-Chasing Powder."

A bitter smile appeared on the corner of Su Ling's mouth. Low Grade Storage Pouches can hold the corpses of Yao Beasts, but they cannot hold the corpses of cultivators.

Su Ling could not figure out this difference.

But it is highly likely related to the properties of spiritual power.

After all, Storage Pouches are crafted by cultivators; who would have thought of using them to store the corpses of their own kind in the first place!

To remove the Soul-Chasing Powder, one needs to consume a large amount of spiritual power to cleanse oneself, and only then can it be completely removed.

Su Ling immediately channeled his spiritual power, cleansing himself from head to toe over a dozen times.

Finally, he activated the Tracking Disc again. Seeing that the needle showed no reaction, he finally felt relieved.

With so many gains, Su Ling could completely continue to Cultivate outside.

The plan to rush back to the Sect was temporarily put on hold.

The top priority was to first complete a few tasks, then return to the cliff cave to Cultivate to the Great Perfection of the Tenth Layer of Qi Refining.

Then return to the Sect to safely Breakthrough to Foundation Establishment.

There is still one year left until the Cuiye Secret Realm opens.

"There is enough time."

Putting away the other items, Su Ling took out Li Huan's black iron flying sword and began to refine it.

Next, he had to go and kill several types of Tenth Layer of Qi Refining Yao Beasts to complete the tasks.

The lethality of the white bone bow was slightly insufficient.

He also couldn't use the Ghost Soul Arrow every time; that would be too taxing on his spirit.

The intact black iron flying sword just happened to make up for the loss of the shattered dark bone thorn and fiend soul flying dagger.

...

In the following time, Su Ling mainly used it to Cultivate and did not hunt too many Yao Beasts.

Moreover, because of the tasks issued by the Sect, a large number of Qi Refinement Stage and Foundation Establishment Stage Disciples went out to execute tasks.

The number of Yao Beasts within a thousand miles of the Sect had significantly decreased.

Just searching for the Profound Ice Spiders, Mantis Beasts, and Molten Crocodiles required for the tasks took him nearly a month.

Having finally completed the tasks, Su Ling immediately returned to the cliff cave to Cultivate.

Even though the contribution points rewards for tasks after Foundation Establishment are much lower than those for the Qi Refinement Stage.

But he did not want to miss the opening of this Cuiye Secret Realm.

Ten months later, relying on a sufficient supply of Spirit Stones and exhausting his qi refining pills and spirit gathering pills, Su Ling finally reached the Great Perfection of the Tenth Layer of Qi Refining.

Then, carrying his full harvest, he returned to the Xuanming Sect.

After handing in the tasks at the Mission Hall, he gained over a thousand contribution points.

Unfortunately, he searched several places with traces of Bloodfang Ghost Bats, but never found any ink jade spirit mushrooms with medicinal power reaching one hundred years.

Even the ink jade spirit mushrooms he did find, he only harvested two.

In the end, it was the refining materials obtained from the Tenth Layer of Qi Refining Yao Beasts that he killed in his spare time that provided a large amount of contribution points.

Subsequently, he exchanged them at the Artifact Hall for nearly two thousand Low-Grade Spirit Stones.

Having experienced the effects of the spirit gathering pills, Su Ling really couldn't look down on the qi refining pills.

Even though there is a ten-fold difference in price between the two, he still unhesitatingly spent two thousand Low-Grade Spirit Stones to exchange for dozens of Qi Gathering Pills and a small amount of Qi Condensing Pills.

Only then did he leisurely return to the outer Sect courtyard.

"Senior Brother Su?!"

"Senior Brother Su has returned!"

Three Disciples from the same courtyard returned from outside and just happened to see Su Ling, who had not yet returned to his room.

With surprise and awe, they bowed and saluted.

Su Ling looked at the three unfamiliar faces and frowned slightly. "Who are you?"

"Oh, Senior Brother Su has been away for three years and hasn't returned, so it's normal that you don't know us."

A youth who looked to be fourteen or fifteen years old looked enlightened and immediately introduced, "My name is Pei Yan, this is Zhou Ming, and this is Liu Yun. The three of us came to the Sect two years ago."

"Two years ago..."

Su Ling was surprised. "Which Imperial Dynasty are you from?"

When he left the Sect three years ago, he had just encountered a batch of Spirit Seeds that had been plundered.

He didn't expect that another batch would come two years ago.

Calculating the time, it should be about the time when the Cangyun Sect of the Great Jade Dynasty and the Bailian Sect of the Liyang Imperial Dynasty opened their mountain gates.

The Xuanming Sect certainly wouldn't miss this five-year opportunity.

"The three of us are all from the Liyang Imperial Dynasty."

Pei Yan looked a bit dejected and said in a low voice.

Being plundered to the Xuanming Sect halfway, they didn't really care at first. Anyway, it was all Cultivation, how much difference could there be?

Moreover, seeing the immortals of the Bailian Sect being killed by people from the Xuanming Sect.

Subconsciously, they thought that the Xuanming Sect was stronger.

They even felt a little secretly happy.

But the first lesson upon entering the Sect, those bloody corpses immediately made everyone realize.

This is a Demonic Path Sect where the weak are prey to the strong!

A moment of carelessness, and one would die and disappear.

Where was there any joy left? All that remained was trembling fear.

Therefore, seeing Su Ling, who had not appeared for a long time, the three of them immediately put on a respectful posture.

"Liyang Imperial Dynasty..."

Su Ling nodded slightly, his gaze glancing at the doorplates of the other six small courtyards, and he asked with a hint of uncertainty, "Five died? Where is the remaining one?"

There are ten rooms in the outer Sect courtyard, and the corresponding owner's token is posted on each door.

But now, the tokens of five rooms have been removed, and only his and one other still have tokens hanging.

Following his gaze, Pei Yan replied, "The other five went out successively two months ago, and shortly after, Junior Martial Uncle Zhao erased their tokens."

When all Spirit Seeds enter the Sect, they drip their essence blood into the Soul Lamp.

Besides being convenient for the Sect to know their life and death, many people secretly speculate that it must contain some kind of special Restriction.

After all, such things are not a secret in the entire Cultivation world.

Many Spirit Seeds come from secular Cultivation Families and have long heard of this.

"As for the last room..."

Speaking of this, the faces of the three, Pei Yan, all showed a hint of amazement. "His name is Yu Rong. We had only been in the Sect for three months when he was promoted to the Eighth Layer of Qi Refining, and then he went out and hasn't returned since. Come to think of it, when Senior Brother Su went out, he should have just entered the Sect."

"Yu Rong?"

Su Ling was slightly stunned. He had a bit of an impression of this name.

Three years ago, before he left the Sect, Zhao Deyan had brought five Spirit Seeds.

One of them seemed to be called Yu Rong.

The problem is, he entered the Sect three years ago, and in one year and three months, he was promoted to the Eighth Layer of Qi Refining.

Such a fast Cultivation speed, the entire Xuanming Sect could not find a few.

Seeing that Su Ling's expression was unusual, Pei Yan quickly explained, "We don't really know where Yu Rong is from. We only know that he has a supreme grade mutated Ice Spiritual Root. Upon entering the Sect, he was valued by a certain Nascent Soul Elder and granted the Sect's direct lineage Cultivation Technique."

"No wonder."

Su Ling looked enlightened. A supreme grade mutated Ice Spiritual Root is a variant of the Water Spiritual Root, a talent surpassing that of a High Grade Water Spiritual Root.

Once this kind of talent practices a Cultivation Technique that matches its attributes, the progress far exceeds that of other qualities of Spiritual Root talent.

And he was valued by a Nascent Soul Elder of the Sect.

Not to mention being promoted to the Eighth Layer of Qi Refining in a little over a year, even Breakthrough to Foundation Establishment would not be surprising.

Such an example had appeared in Su Ling's batch of Spirit Seeds.

Yun Qingluan, supreme grade Dark Spiritual Root. The one who took her as a Disciple was none other than the Merit Hall Elder, Mo Jinghun.

It is said that this woman had already Breakthrough to Foundation Establishment four and a half years ago and became an Inner Sect Disciple.

The excellence of her talent is evident.